1. What started you with Chiptune?
I used to be really into circuit-bending. So sometime in early 2010, I had stumbled across game boy modifications while looking into all that stuff and liked that idea, so I looked more into the possibilities of bending video game consoles. Since I didn't know anything about chiptune, it took awhile to come across 8bitcollective and chipmusic.org. I discovered MIDINES first, and since I couldn't afford to purchase one at the time, I started messing around with Famitracker. Somehow, that led to my discovery of nanoloop, LSDJ, 8bitcollective, etc. When I gained interest in using a game boy, I had wanted to use nanoloop because the LSDJ GUI seemed intimidating. After failing to create anything I liked with nanoloop, I decided to give LSDJ a try and ended sticking with it.
2. What song of yours do you like most? Do you have any patches you're particularly attached to?
Recoil, Titan, and Reveries at Sunrise has always been personal favorites. I also am pretty proud of Desolate Time (which I'm now actually playing as CHILLBRAVE). I don't have any particular patches I'm attached to, other than a top-secret WAV kick that was given to me recently by an artist who would like to remain anonymous. Different songs call for different patches. I suppose I have a sort of "system" for making patches work better as leads, basses, etc, but I don't have specific patches I program in every time I open a new LSDJ project.
3. What is your strongest influence?
My strongest? Ugh, its difficult to pick just one. I'm very influenced by other chipmusic. My earliest influences in music are based in film scores and the Super Smash Bros Melee soundtrack that Nintendo Power sent out to its subscribers. I'm definitely not influenced by video game music other than that, if that's what you're asking.
4. You loooooove doing covers man. What's your process with that?
I've never been someone particularly good at transcribing music by ear, so I'll generally find multiple references online. My covers are usually based on a combination of various guitar tabs, piano sheet music, and chord sheets. I actually just finished something new that I actually had to do mostly by ear myself, and I think it turned out pretty well still. Once I have all the notes in, I go through and add TONS of L, E, K, V, P, and W commands to try to emulate the way the vocalist sings the melody on the original track.
5. HOW WAS BLIP
SO GOOD. I loved getting to meet people from online in real life finally, and getting to see all my NYC friends one last time for the summer. The artists were all GREAT as well. Live Nation ended up being pretty annoying with some policies like no re-entry and all that, but it didn't end up getting in the way too much.
6. Any rumors for the masses?
I heard there might be a CHILLBRAVE album on its way...
7. Any releases that struck you recently? Artists?
I really liked Je Mappelle's Wish and Knife City's EP. ALSO LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT NEW FROSTBYTE RELEASE. Outside of chipmusic, I've been listening to a lot of Sigur Rós' Valtari and Knife Party's Rage Valley.
8. On a scale of 1-10, what do you want to be when you grow up?
10… definitely 10.
9. Do you have a favorite super hero?
Nah, but Spider-Man is pretty cool I guess.
10. What makes you write dance music? Do you listen to hi-fi dance when you're not around the gameboys?
I'm not sure really. I was completely unfamiliar with dance music prior to getting into chiptune… my roots were mostly in post-rock and punk stuff. I suppose I caught on that the LSDJ tracks that were most fun to play live also happened to be my danciest ones, so I just went with that, I guess.
So that's how THAT went down. Hope you enjoy the read! And did you hear that? There might be a CHILLBRAVE release on the way...Hmmm.
Peace out, folks!
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